May 17, 2023
“Ethics is a key component of the engine that makes an organization run. It helps guide not just clinical care but medical direction and leadership,” said Timothy Holahan, DO, CMD, chair of AMDA’s Ethics Subcommittee. He, along with Katja Elbert-Avila, MD, CMD, vice chair, and the other subcommittee members work on applying the four primary ethical principles of autonomy, justice, beneficence, and non-maleficence to difficult issues that AMDA members often face in the post-acute and long-term care setting. “Part of this role should be to help the organization as a whole look at things from a different perspective,” he observed.
Ethics is a broad topic that encompasses a variety of aspects of care, including advocacy for residents. For instance, the interplay between ethics and public policy is distinct. “There needs to be an ethical framework behind policies. I think our subcommittee can help AMDA and our members navigate public policy within an ethical framework,” he said.
The pandemic highlighted numerous ethical issues, and in the past three years, the subcommittee has spent significant time tackling them. As Dr. Holahan explained, “We’ve been focusing on providing education about the ethical issues surrounding COVID-19.” One example was justice in resource management. “This was a significant concern during the COVID-19 pandemic, in terms of how to balance resources,” Dr. Holahan said. Another major issue, Dr. Holahan noted, involves patient autonomy and how this is impacted when people have dementia and lose the capacity to make their own decisions over time.
Members of the subcommittee have presented at the AMDA EDGE Virtual Symposium, as well as at the annual conference. Their participation in the EDGE program was significant, Dr. Holahan said, as “there is a natural relationship between DEI (a topic discussed during the symposium) and ethics. Some of our committee members are involved in both areas and both have respect for people—residents, staff, families, and others—as a central focus.”
Dr. Holahan added, “It is important for leaders such as medical directors to be familiar with the basics of ethics and get involved in certain projects related to this area. We encounter ethics in our day-to-day work, and it runs through much of what we do and the decisions we make.”
His involvement on the Ethics Subcommittee has been an enlightening experience for Dr. Holahan. “I’ve had the opportunity to network and meet many AMDA members,” he said. Volunteering for this role may take time out of his already busy schedule, he said, but “I really enjoy it. I get to work with AMDA members in a variety of regions and settings, and the publications and presentations I’ve been a part of have grown my clinical knowledge and relationships with my colleagues and others.” At the same time, he stressed, “As medical directors and geriatricians, we have an obligation to lead by example in matters of ethical leadership.” At the same time, Dr. Holahan welcomes the opportunity to give back to AMDA, the organization that has been his professional home since he was a Futures Program participant.
Dr. Holahan urged interested AMDA members to consider getting involved with the Ethics Subcommittee. “We are a friendly group, and we are committed to helping the organization grow from an ethical perspective. We are meant to be a resource and help the AMDA members through various situations and provide them with the resources they need,” he noted, and you don’t have to be an ethicist or expert on the subject. It’s enough to have an interest in and passion for it, even if your formal ethical experience is limited.
